Any discussion of the background art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Access control systems are commonly made up of access control devices, which are situated at locations of controlled functionalities (for example at doors which are locked/unlocked by way of access control devices), these access control devices being configured to make access control determinations. For example, a user presents a token (such as a smartcard), and the access control device makes a determination as to whether or not access is to be granted. For example, this may involve an authentication and authorisation process.
In recent times, particularly with increases in popularity of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology and the like in mobile devices, various access control systems have been configured to allow a user to provide a mobile device as an alternative to a smartcard. For example, user credentials are maintained on the phone, and read via NFC by an access control device. Whilst, from a user perspective, this provides beneficial functionalities, there are various reasons for which it is not ideal technologically. For example, there are concerns as to security of NFC communications, and increased costs and complexities in access control devices.